How does removing a playing field in SLO increase access?

July 27, 2026

OPINION by PEG PINARD

An open letter to the members of the San Luis Obispo City Council

It was interesting to read your recent DEI announcement, especially your commitment to “increasing access,” “fostering belonging,” “advancing structural and institutional equity,” and “improving community health and well-being.” It prompted a simple question: How are those same principles being applied to our Emerson/Old Town neighborhood?

Increasing access

You told the state that “Emerson Park is the only park area that neighborhood residents can easily access by foot,” noting that “358 families near the project site do not have access to a car.” You also explained that, for many residents, “access to free resources within their neighborhood parks becomes vital for their health and wellbeing.”

That is what you told the state to qualify for your grant. Yet your recent – and continued – proposal would take away the neighborhood’s only multi-use playing field serving more than 5,000 nearby residents and replace it with a single-use dog facility. How does taking away the very recreation space you told the state was vital to this neighborhood increase access?

Fostering belonging 

Your DEI announcement calls for projects that “strengthen inclusion and foster a greater sense of belonging throughout the City of San Luis Obispo.” Yet your Parks and Recreation director described what little space would remain after eliminating the neighborhood’s only playing field as “sufficient for yoga and group exercise.”

Is that really your vision of belonging…to take away the only place where children and neighborhood residents can be with friends and play soccer, baseball, or other active games?

Advancing structural and institutional equity 

Your DEI announcement states that proposals should “contribute to systemic or structural changes” throughout the city. Doesn’t that require looking at how your own decisions affect neighborhoods differently?

You identified the Emerson/Old Town neighborhood as already underserved and in “critical need” of active recreation space. Yet your proposal would remove its only multi-use playing field while residents in every other neighborhood keep theirs.

How is that advancing structural and institutional equity?

Improving community health and well-being 

You told the state that “unstructured play is vital to children’s health and development.” You also told the state that Emerson’s field is the neighborhood’s only place where that kind of recreation is available within safe walking distance.

Why, then, do you still want to eliminate the very space you said was vital to children’s health and development?

Your Parks and Recreation Commission voted unanimously to preserve Emerson’s entire playing field and reject the introduction of a dog facility into a park that is already much smaller than other neighborhood parks. The neighborhood overwhelmingly agreed.

Yet, you have already informed State Parks that you intend to keep the dog facility in the plan. You have even kept funds set aside to make it happen. Is that being honest with the residents you were elected to represent?

After reading your DEI announcement, I have to ask…is this really your vision for our neighborhood?

Peg Pinard is a former San Luis Obispo mayor and founder of the Old Town Neighborhood Association.